A noun is one of the main parts of speech in the Russian language that is distinguished by such constant attributes as declension, gender, animation or inanimate, property or commonality.
You can attribute a word to a noun by asking the question "who?" or "what?". Basically, its correct definition does not cause difficulties for students of the Russian language. But identifying the declension of a word or its gender often causes complications.
Gender of nouns: how is it determined?
There are words in Russian that enter into a stupor when trying to determine their gender. What kind of tulle, for example? Or the word "coffee"? Or a kangaroo?
The kind of word is determined by asking questions: “is she mine?”, “Is it mine?”, “Is it mine?”. For example, “spring” (is it mine?) Is the feminine gender, “flower” (is it mine?) Is the masculine gender, and “sun” (is it mine?) Is the middle gender. But what about when it is not easy to ask a question correctly? "Tulle" - what kind of word, female or male? Shampoo - female or male? Only the morphological rule for determining the gender of nouns will help answer these questions.
Determining the gender of nouns
According to the rule of Russian linguistics, nouns with endings a / s ending in a hard hissing or a soft consonant refer to the female gender: "water", "steel", "false."
Nouns that end in -a / -y, end in a solid consonant, consonant -th and are borrowed, being used with soft consonants at the end, belong to the masculine gender: "bear", "bull", "edge", " piano". If you believe this rule, the word "tulle" to which genus refers? True, masculine, because it is borrowed from the French language (derived from the name of the French city) and has a corresponding ending. Adjectives that are consistent with the word tulle must be masculine: "transparent tulle", "dear tulle", "tight tulle".
The middle gender includes nouns that have the ending -o / -th or ending with -my: "oar", "sun", "seed".
In that case, if the noun has all the attributes of not one genus, but several, it is necessary to refer to the rules or dictionaries. Explanatory and spelling dictionaries indicate the kind of words. Allocate the so-called general gender, denoting both female and male faces: "tearful" or "crying" sneak, "fat" or "fat" glutton.
In nouns with a plural form, gender is not defined: "scissors", "fritters", "tongs", "trousers".
Genus of Nouns
In declined nouns, gender is determined by the above rule. Now it’s clear what kind of “tulle”, “shampoo”, “corn” and others.
How is the gender of indeclinable or immutable nouns defined? Here a slightly different rule applies.
- Firstly, the words that speak about males refer to the males, and those that speak about females - to the feminine: "receptionist", "croupier" (male), "freken", "peri" (female) .
- Secondly, the words that call animals are most often masculine: "cute cockatoo", "fast kangaroo."
- Thirdly, inanimate words denoting objects most often refer to the middle family: "foyer", "cafe", "coat". However, do not forget that the word "coffee" refers to the masculine words: "delicious coffee", "rich coffee."
Immutable words, having the form of only the plural, have no gender, like similar declined nouns: "bright blinds", "stylish breeches".
Common mistakes in the use of the gender of nouns
In colloquial speech, mistakes are often observed in the use of certain nouns associated with an incorrect definition of gender. For example, it’s correct to say “sick callus”, “fashionable veil”, “fragrant shampoo”, “expensive tulle”. What kind of words are these? The rule helps to determine this, as well as examples of their use in literary texts. “There, inside, there was a tender callus from a cane” (Ulitskaya). The proposal cited from the work of L. Ulitskaya once again proves that the word "corn" refers to the female genus. “Tulle could not stand its weight” (Bulgakov). An example from the work of M. Bulgakov shows what kind of "tulle".